Meet Lando's New Droid Co-Pilot L3-37 in Solo

It's been a big week for Solo: A Star Wars Story, with the first Super Bowl teaser dropping during the game and the first trailer arriving on Monday, along with new character posters that offered a glimpse at Emilia Clarke's Qi'ra. Entertainment Weekly has also showcased Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) and Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) on the cover, while debuting a number of new photos and story details thus far. Today the publication has new insight on the new droid character L3-37, portrayed through motion capture by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag), who is one of the few female droid in the Star Wars universe. The publication spoke to screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, who had this to say about this unique character, who works for Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover).

"She has a working relationship with Lando, and it's very sophisticated and informed by years of working together. And, Phoebe, herself, is hilarious. The effect that she will appear in is amazing, but she comes through very strongly even with this astounding [CGI], both her humor and her physicality. If you meet Phoebe, she's one of these people you just fall in love with immediately."

The droid's name alone is a reference to "leet" (l337), which is the practice of substituting numerals for letters in words. Donald Glover revealed in an earlier interview that both Lando Calrissian and L3-37 are "kind of self-made," adding that "they get each other in that way." Here's what screenwriter Jon Kasdan had to say about the droid.

"She's a self-modified droid. The idea is that she's sort of a mutt, if you will, of various parts of different kinds of droids who has improved upon herself. She's a complete individual in the galaxy. We wanted to have it be a completely different kind of droid than you've ever seen in the movies. And we definitely wanted it to be a female. We thought it was more than time for that."

Like most of the Star Wars droids before her, L3-37 is responsible for a lot of comic relief, although it comes from a very different place. She is not a "stick in the mud" like C-3PO or Rogue One's K-2SO, and she is also quite intelligent. Here's what director Ron Howard had to say about L3-37 in his interview with EW.

"Her AI is way up there in terms of IQ. She's capable of some pretty interesting conversations. And Phoebe is hilarious and brilliant and really helped bring that character to life in ways that are funny and surprising."

L3-37 was first revealed in the trailer and the teaser images that followed. Jon Kasdan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his father Lawrence Kasdan, reveals that they both based this L3-37 character on real people they know

"She's an absolute engine, not just for comedy, but for point of view, and she's got a very strong personality. Much like women in my life and Larry's life that have just made their will known to us, she isn't subservient. L3 is subservient to no one, which is a fun kind of droid to write."

The first trailer was well-received by fans, and it also confirmed that Disney was still committed to releasing the movie on May 25, 2018. There had been no shortage of rumors that the release date would be delayed to December, to give director Ron Howard, who reshot almost the entire movie after original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired, more time to put the re-shot footage together in post-production. You can head on over to Entertainment Weekly for their full report on L3-37, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.